---

27 Jun 2005 : Column 1329W—continued

Pensioners

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many pensioners in Strangford
 
27 Jun 2005 : Column 1330W
 
constituency are in receipt of disability living allowance, broken down by (a) care and (b) mobility components. [6681]

Mr. Hanson: The information requested is shown in the following table for February 2005.

Component	Number of pensioners
Care only	230
Mobility only	388
Care and mobility	1,709
Strangford total	2,327

Additional information on combined Care and Mobility awards is provided to avoid double counting.

PFI/PPP

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what public finance initiative and public-private partnership projects arrangements involving Jarvis plc are in place in (a) the NHS and (b) the Department of Education in the Province; and if he will make a statement. [6679]

Angela E. Smith: No public finance initiative or public-private partnership projects involving Jarvis are in place in the Health and Personal Social Services or the Department of Education in Northern Ireland.

Police

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the estimated annual running costs are of the recently acquired helicopter for use by the police in Northern Ireland. [7538]

Mr. Woodward: The Police Service of Northern Ireland will shortly bring a helicopter into full operational service following a period of trials. This will be used to assist officers in reducing crime and improving community safety.

Total running costs for the first year are estimated to be £686,565.

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many typist manager's posts there are in each Police Service Northern Ireland District Command area; and how many posts are expected to be required in future. [7139]

Mr. Woodward: The Police Service of Northern Ireland recently conducted a review of typing services within the organisation. The review was necessary to reflect the reality in recent years of the reduction in police officer numbers overall and the significant investment in information technology.

As a result of that review all typing manager posts were disestablished, and no typing manager posts currently exist in any District Command Unit.
 
27 Jun 2005 : Column 1331W
 

The issue of redundancy does not arise as the PSNI is taking a number of steps to re-deploy the surplus typists, including those who previously fulfilled the role of typing manager.

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will take steps to ensure that the police station in Castle Rock is retained. [7537]

Mr. Woodward: The issue of station closures is addressed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Estate Strategy Review. The Chief Constable and Policing Board continue to work closely on this matter.

Before the Police Service of Northern Ireland make a submission to the Policing Board to close a particular station, they undertake a consultation process with the relevant District Policing Partnership.

This will be the case with Castlerock PSNI station as with any other which the Police Service propose to close.

Public Land Disposal

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to dispose of public land (a) on the Stormont estate in Belfast and (b) elsewhere in Northern Ireland. [5520]

Angela E. Smith: It is not possible to provide details of all plans to dispose of public lands in Northern Ireland. However in the case of the Northern Ireland Civil Service office estate (i.e. properties held by the Department of Finance and Personnel) the Government are currently considering proposals to transfer ownership of a number of Government office buildings to the private sector as part of a major programme of transformation and rationalisation. The proposals include some properties at the south eastern corner of the Stormont estate. This particular aspect will be subject to public consultation in the autumn.

Parliament Buildings, Stormont Castle, Stormont House and the surrounding parkland are specifically excluded from the plans.

Safety Cameras

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many speed cameras there are in the North Belfast area; and how much money has been raised in fines from each of them since their installation. [7630]

Mr. Woodward: There is one fixed road safety camera in North Belfast DCU, which is located on the Antrim Road. The camera has made a total of 2,352 detections for speeding since it was installed on 1 July 2003, generating a total of £141,120 in fine revenue.

Schools (Integrated Status)

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many schools in Northern Ireland (a) applied for and (b) were granted integrated status in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement. [3474]

Angela E. Smith: The position with regard to proposals for new integrated schools in the past five years is as follows:
 
27 Jun 2005 : Column 1332W
 

Year
2005	1 application for transformation of existing school—Approved
2004	No applications
2003	5 applications for new schools—4 approved and 1 turned down (which had also applied in 2002)
	2 applications for transformation of existing schools—Both approved
2002	2 applications for new schools—1 approved and 1 turned down
	2 applications for transformation of existing schools—Both approved
2001	1 application for a new school—Approved

Translink Metro

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to extend the Translink Metro system to other parts of Northern Ireland. [7162]

Mr. Woodward: The Metro system is confined to the Greater Belfast area. However, Translink has recently announced the start of strategic reviews of its Ulsterbus district and schools networks, consistent with the objectives of the Regional Transportation Strategy. The intentions of the reviews are to provide attractive and more frequent core services to encourage passenger growth and to maximise the use of available resources to improve public transport accessibility in the cities, towns and rural areas outside Belfast. The review programme is expected to take up to three years to design and implement.

Young Offenders

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of the number of young offenders in Northern Ireland who had (a) alcohol and (b) drug abuse problems in the last year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [6675]

Mr. Woodward: In the 12 months to May 2005, 359 young offenders committed to Hydebank Wood Young Offenders Centre and Prison declared a dependency on alcohol and 468 inmates a dependency/misuse of drugs. 58 inmates did not declare a dependency on either alcohol or drugs.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Confiscation Orders

Chris Ruane: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many confiscation orders have been refused by the Crown courts in each police authority area since they were introduced; and what the total value was. [6166]

Ms Harman: During the year ending 31 March 2005, 2503 confiscation orders were made in the Crown court. The number of occasions on which the Crown court considered making an order but was unable to make one is not known.
 
27 Jun 2005 : Column 1333W
 

County Court Judgments

Dr. Whitehead: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of the implications of the admissibility of post office box addresses in applications for county court judgments. [7281]

Ms Harman: No formal assessment has been made of the implications of using post office box addresses, but it would be unlikely to provide the degree of certainty of service necessary for legal process. A party must therefore give either his solicitor's business address or his own residence or place of business as his address for service.

---